BIRD CONSERVATION The Magazine of American Bird Conservancy Spring 2012 BIRD’S EYE VIEW On the EDGE “In the ecstasy of homecoming, the curlew now hardly remembered that for three summers past he had been mysteriously alone and the mating fire within had burned itself out unquenched…” Fred Bodsworth, Last of the Curlews ost – but certainly not all – shorebirds spend extinction. The Mountain Plover’s grassland habitats – and critical parts of their lives on the thin edge thus the bird – are disappearing as native grasslands are Mwhere sea meets land. Unfortunately for them, converted to marginal agriculture. Habitat loss, possibly and for those of us who love shorebirds, this is also where in combination with pesticide poisoning, may cause the people like to be. Buff-breasted Sandpiper to disappear over the horizon to another Heaven and another Earth too. This continuing, intense competition between man and nature at the shoreline is not going well for nature. Many shorebirds, whose numbers seemed beyond affecting Around the world, man is gaining the edge: building just a few years ago, are now disappearing before our eyes. houses; polluting; filling wetlands (such as the invaluable Sanderlings – those birds we watched doggedly chasing the Saemangeum wetlands on the coast of South Korea, home tide up and down the beach when we were children: way to millions of wintering shorebirds, including, perhaps, down (no more happy patter of little feet). Piping Plovers? our own bar-tailed Godwit); vainly hardening shorelines Around 6,500 left. as sea level rises; and damaging habitat with off-road Many birders I speak with tell me they steer clear of shore- vehicles, invasive, alien plants, and flotsam. It really isn’t birds: too hard to identify, they say. Most birders can walk going that well for man either, now that I think of it. out their front door and start to watch landbirds every day, But “shorebirds” is really a misnomer, since so many spe- but shorebirds are out on the edge of their imagination, in cies in this group spend much or all of their time else- a faraway and, for some, even forbidding place. So, why where, such as Upland Sandpipers nesting in grasslands, care? The answers to this are many, and you have heard yellowlegs in the Boreal Forest, and Eskimo Curlews in them before: we are borrowing from our children, we history. should adhere to the precautionary principle, maintain the intrinsic values of biodiversity, and the interconnectedness Yes, the Eskimo Curlew is gone forever, and in the words of all life. of American naturalist William Beebe, “Another Heaven and another Earth must pass before such a one can be I say care to save shorebirds because we can. Read the again.” The last individual seen in North America was in articles in this issue and learn how. It just takes will; yours 1962 on the edge at Galveston island, texas, and the abso- and mine. lute last confirmed Eskimo Curlew was shot in Barbados the following year. Other shorebirds such as the rufa Red Knot may follow the eskimo curlew into extinction. Even those species that avoid the land/water ecotone George H. Fenwick altogether can be on or near the edge of survival and President, american bird conservancy COVER PHOTO: American Oystercatcher: Judd Patterson/Birds In Focus 2 bird conservation • sPRING 2012 Bird Conservation is the magazine of American Bird Conservancy (ABC), BIRD Conservation and is published three times yearly. Mountain Plover: Greg Lavaty_www.texastargetbirds.com American Bird Conservancy (ABC) is the SPRING 2012 only 501(c)(3) organization that works solely to conserve native wild birds and their habitats throughout the Americas. A copy of the current financial statement SAVING SHOREBIRDS and registration filed by the organization may be obtained by contacting: ABC, P.O. Box 249, The Plains, VA 20198. Tel: (540) 253-5780, or by contacting the following 8 Recovering Shorebird in the Americas state agencies: Florida: Division of Consumer Services, toll-free number within the State: 11 Threats to Shorebirds 800-435-7352. Maryland: For the cost of copies and postage: Office of the Secretary of State, 14 Shorebirds Use Diverse Habitats Statehouse, Annapolis, MD 21401. New Jersey: Attorney General, State of New Jersey: 201-504-6259. 16 Far from Shore, But Up A Creek New York: Office of the Attorney General, Department of Law, Charities Bureau, 120 Broadway, New York, NY 10271. Pennsylvania: Department of State, 18 Among the Islands: Laguna Madre toll-free number within the state: Black Skimmer: Alan Wilson 800-732-0999. Virginia: State Division of Consumer 20 Beach-nesting Bird Conservation Affairs, Dept. of Agriculture and Consumer Services, P.O. Box 1163, Richmond, VA 23209. West Virginia: Secretary of State, State 22 Reserve Profile:e l cercado, Mexico Capitol, Charleston, WV 25305. Registration does not imply endorsement, approval, or recommendation by any state. 25 Planned Giving American Bird Conservancy is not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts or photographs. Approval is required Monarchs of the Mud-Probers for reproduction of any photographs or 26 artwork. Editors: George Fenwick, Jack Morrison, Merrie Morrison, Gemma Radko, Gavin Shire, George E. Wallace DEPARTMENTS Long-billed Curlew: Tom Grey ABC’s Bird Conservation magazine brings you the best in bird conservation news and features. 2 Bird’s Eye View For more information contact: On The Wire American Bird Conservancy Pectoral Sandpiper: Greg Homel, 4 4249 Loudoun Avenue Natural Elements Productions P.O. Box 249 Species Profile The Plains, VA 20198 28 540-253-5780 diademed sandpiper-Plover Web: www.abcbirds.org Email: [email protected] Diademed Sandpiper-Plover: Dubi Shapiro Scan to check out ABC’s bird conservation • sPRING 2012 3 new mobile website! ON the WIRE Endangered Black-backed Thornbill Found at El Dorado Reserve in Colombia n December 2011, biologists Black-backed Thornbills have very working with ABC partner short, slightly downward-curving IFundación Proaves observed and bills and purplish-black, forked tails. photographed a Black-backed Thorn- Males are mostly black above, while bill at the El Dorado Reserve. This females are bronzy-green above and hummingbird species, classified as whitish below, speckled with green on Male Black-backed Thornbill: Fundación ProAves globally endangered, is found only in the throat and sides. the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta of “This rare little bird is a gem and will the Black-backed Thornbill and many Colombia in humid and elfin forests, undoubtedly bring more attention other endemic species, such as the bush-covered slopes near the tree line, to the fantastic El Dorado Reserve,” santa Marta Parakeet, santa Marta and in páramo (high-altitude grass- said Benjamin Skolnik, Conservation Sabrewing, and Santa Marta Bush- land). the bird’s already small range is Project specialist with american bird Tyrant. shrinking drastically due to rampant Conservancy. “You can add one more deforestation, overgrazing, and burn- abc is presently supporting Proaves’ to a long list of endemic, threatened ing. Its population is suspected to be efforts to acquire another key tract species you could see there.” in decline due to this ongoing habitat of land to add to the reserve, where loss, making the sighting of this indi- The El Dorado Bird Reserve protects palm trees used by the Santa Marta vidual at El Dorado significant. over 2,000 acres of critical habitat for Parakeet grow. New Government Initiative Will Benefit Golden-winged Warblers new program called “Work- and the opportunity it provides to monitoring to benefit the Golden- ing Lands for Wildlife” better engage private landowners winged Warbler. An education cam- A (WLW), unveiled in March in conservation. If we are going to paign will improve understanding of 2012 by the U.S. Departments of the have this bird around for future the importance of young forests and Interior and Agriculture, will provide generations, we’re going to need scrubby, open habitat to this bird,” a huge boost for Golden-winged public and private collaboration,” smith explained. Warbler conservation in the east- said Brian Smith, ABC’s AMJV abc has already made the Golden- ern United States, involving dozens Coordinator. winged Warbler a major focus of its of organizations across ten states, The WLW initiative will focus on conservation, and is continuing to including federal and state agencies, creating and maintaining the types of coordinate conservation measures in universities, and not-for-profit con- habitat necessary to sustain popula- both the United States and on the servation organizations. This effort is tions of warblers in and around their bird’s wintering grounds in Central being facilitated by the Appalachian current breeding areas, particularly and South America. Mountains Joint venture (aMJv) young forest. This will include and ABC. efforts designed to also increase “The Golden-winged Warbler is one the amount of available habitat of the most seriously threatened, throughout the Appalachians. non-federally listed species in “The additional funding from eastern North America. Everyone the WLW project will provide for familiar with its plight will be increased on-the-ground habitat excited about the WLW project restoration, conservation, and 4 bird conservation • sPRING 2012 Photo by Laura Erickson Protecting the Red Knot in South America he rufa red Knot has expe- rienced alarming declines in Trecent decades — from well over 100,000 in the early 1990s to about 40,000 today — and is now in real danger of extinction within the next ten years. Populations of long-distance migrant Red Knots, which winter on Tierra del Fuego in southernmost South America, are of particular concern, having dropped from more than 50,000 in 1985 to fewer than 15,000 today. With nu- merous partners, ABC has advocated The campaign’s logo, seen on for the protection of one of the knot’s The Red Knot mascot, called Fabién Rojizo after a essential food sources – the eggs of buttons, bumper stickers, and biplane pilot in a novel by Antoine de Saint Exupery, horseshoe crabs, the laying of which is a popular figure around San Antonio Bay, Argentina.